SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS: MURDEROUS GOOD TIME

Fiction meets reality in this seriously dark comedy. Colin Farrell plays Marty, a struggling writer whose newest screenplay is based on select events in his life. The story involves several killers (thus the title) and how their lives become entangled in one another. Marty's concept is supplied to him by his friend and some time room mate Billy (Sam Rockwell).

Things are set in motion with Billy and Marty's other friend Hans (Christopher Walken), Billy's partner. These two are low level bad guys who make a living by kidnapping dogs of wealthy people and then returning them for a reward. Unfortunately the Shih Tzu that the pair of kidnapped at the moment is the beloved pet of big time mobster Charlie (Woody Harrelson) who sends out his minions to discover who would be so bold and to then kill them.

But the movie offers us more than just this simple story as Billy tells tale after tale to Marty about the various killers he's brought up. One is a Vietnamese killer out to set things straight. Another is a killer who feels his daughter was wronged by a young man. One is known as the Jack of Diamonds killer because he leaves a playing card behind on each of the high level mobsters he kills. And then there is Zachariah (Tom Waites) who replies to an ad Billy placed asking for psychopaths to tell Marty their story. Apparently Zachariah and his wife were multiple serial killers as he unfolds his tale to Marty only to then let him know he'll have to kill him eventually. All of these items play into the whole story that is not only being written by Marty but that he and his friends are actually living.

Along the way we also find out more about Hans and Billy. Hans' wife is in a nursing home and he visits her frequently. One of the many stories that Marty hears and writes about involves Hans and his wife. Several relate to Billy in one way or another. All have surprising consequences that you don't quite see coming as the story unfolds.

That's what makes this movie so special. The pieces of the puzzle are offered to you as viewer but they eventually drop into place as more and more are told the pieces turned this way and that as to make sense. About 2/3 into the film Marty, Hans and Billy go on a road trip to the desert and overnight more tales are told and almost everything the stories have led up to happens.

So many films these days love to take on the title of quirky and few ever live up to that concept. This film grasps it with both hands and clings to it tightly, deservedly so. It not only offers something truly different than most movies have to offer it does so with a unique blend of sadness, adventure and dark humor that rarely combine well but here come together like few films do.

There is nothing that is sub-par about anything involved in this film. The acting is tremendous and all three main leads have their moment in the sun. Farrell downplays his character so as to not be the leading man we've grown accustomed to. Rockwell shows that his abilities are almost always underused until now. And Walken at times does a parody of what we've come to associate with him but then shows that his character is perhaps the one with the biggest heart of all.

With a title like this some will shy away and be afraid of what they will encounter. Then again with the dark humor involved it might not be for everyone. But if you're willing to take a chance you'll find one of the funniest and most touching films albeit a gory film that you will find something to like in it. For me it's one to keep on the shelf and pull out from time to time to enjoy.

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